


One and Half Nights at Freddy's

by cupidty11, StoneCatcher



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Invader Zim
Genre: Blood, Crossover, Gen, General, Graphic descriptions of gore, Horror, no ships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 08:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2184321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidty11/pseuds/cupidty11, https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoneCatcher/pseuds/StoneCatcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! What do ya think?!"  Zim swallowed his shock and forced a smile on his face. Humans liked smiles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One and Half Nights at Freddy's

**Author's Note:**

> ((please forgive the terrible title. this is an rp between me and StoneCatcher and I'm Zim and he's Dib. it turned into this and there might be more to it one day. ))

The building was like any other place in this terrible town; greasy, dirty and overcrowded. Zim shuffled inside, head thrown back in pride. He was no longer afraid of these stupid pizza places. Those filthy animatronics wouldn't get the best of him again. They were just machines. Zim knew how to destroy and rebuild machines better than anyone. The inside of 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza' wasn't much cleaner than the outside. It was bright and forcedly chipper. Children ran around, screaming and laughing. Zim shuddered and looked around for someone who looked like they might be in charge. 

"Hello! You must be Zom!" A deep, jolly voice said. Zim jumped and spun around to face a very large, very tall, very dirty man with a thick beard and bright, beady eyes. "Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! What do ya think?!" Zim swallowed his shock and forced a smile on his face. Humans liked smiles. 

"It's uh great! Yes, I l-love it." He nodded to emphasize his words. The man, whose name tag said Henry, seemed pleased by that. He laughed a bit and gestured for Zim to follow him. Henry, who was the manager of the place, wanted to give him the 'grand tour' as he put it. Zim followed along, being very careful to avoid looking over at the stage across the room. It was surrounded by chanting children and he knew that they were very excited for the three animatronics who stood there, singing and dancing with blank eyes and smiles that never fell. 

There was the kitchen, the bathrooms, backstage and Pirates Cove that had a little sign that said 'Out of Order'. Finally, they reached where he would be working that night. Zim noted with disgust how dirty the place was. Greasy and dusty with a spider's web in the corner. "Well, this is the place!" Henry said cheerfully. "Here's your badge, your uniform and keys!" Zim managed to hold them all. "Place closes at 10! But, we won't need you here until 12! Oh, one last thing!" Henry held out a clipboard, with several pieces of paper attached to it. "Legal stuff, Zom. Better safe than sorry!" Zim had to put the stuff down in order to sign here and here and there and here and yes, there. Thank you!

Zim nodded and without another word waddled until he reached the exit, arms full of stuff. 

He dropped it all in his Voot Cruiser with a sigh. Why did everything hate him? 

The uniform was way too big for him. It drooped and sagged and he hated it. There were too many keys when he only needed the one to get in. He hated it. The badge had his picture and his name, misspelled. He hated it. 

\--

The parking lot was empty, a blessing and a curse, with a single streetlamp flickering violently. Zim unlocked the backroom door and stepped inside. It was very dark. He swallowed and shook himself of his silly fears. It was fine. This was easy. Very, very easy. The jobs he'd had before this involved acid and cleaning toilets. This wasn't what he'd imagined when he'd came to Earth but, you had to do what you had to do. 

Zim's first plan of action was the tidy the office. It was only 11:30 and he had time. The pizza on the desk was moldy and he gagged. The whole place was covered in a deep film of dust. Why was it so dusty?! It was like no one had worked there...in a long, long time...

Zim hissed at himself, throwing away all negative thoughts. Easy. So easy. The clock was closing in on 12 so he sat in the swirly chair and adjusted it to his height. On either side of him there were doors that could be lowered or raised with a button. Huh. Also lights. Zim blinked in confusion. Whatever. On the desk there was a little tablet. He lifted it and the screen lit up with several camera angles. He could see almost all the places that manager had shown him earlier. Everywhere but the kitchen and where he sat now. 

Zim swiveled in the chair, flicking through the screens when he noted the power usage in the corner. Huh. Up above him he saw a clock that counted down the hours, A fan blew semi cool air and children's drawing mangled the wall. He sighed and shook his head. This was easy. easy money, easy easy easy. He chanted to himself, before checking the screen again. His heart was suddenly in his throat and at the same time the floor had fallen out from under him. 

One of those robots was missing. It wasn't where it should be. It wasn't next to the duck, or the bear, The rabbit was gone. The breath had left him and he frantically switched through the cameras, searching... until he came across the ominous silhouette of a bunny in the party room. It had moved. 

His eyes bulged and he knew that he was in trouble. He switched back to the stage and luckily the other two were still in their same place. He went back to the Party room and the RABBIT WAS GONE AGAIN. It had gotten closer to him. Staring with small beady eyes at the camera. He muffled a scream, glancing up at the doors. A sudden realization hit him. He was stuck here. Those doors were to keep those things out. He experimented and found that each time he lowered the doors his power dropped. What happened when he ran out of power?! Zim didn't want to find out. 

He curled up in a ball under the desk. If those things got to him...he had no idea what would happen. He wasn't going to find out. What was he going to do?! Zim whimpered and checked the cameras again. Now the chicken/duck thing was gone and he wanted to throw up. This was insanity, this wasn't anything he'd ever dreamed of encountering. But, of course it had happened. This was...this was...the words failed him as he searched for the right one. Supernatural. Paranormal. The image of a big head and brown eyes and stupid hair filled his vision. The Dib. 

The Dib could help him.   
\--

The Dib was, at the moment, tucked away in a small cubicle, having answered call after call about malfunctioning equipment and electronics. 

"Is it plugged in?" He asked in a dry voice, cheek in his hand, squishing up and skewing his glasses. "Yes, sir, plugging it in might help. It's working now? Great. Glad to be of service."

He sighed miserably and rubbed his eyes, not so much out of tiredness but out of frustration. 

Sure, there had been _real_ issues he'd needed to help people with, but it seemed 80% of calls were a direct relation to sheer stupidity.   
If only something interesting would happen.

Dib glanced at the clock on his monitor, telling him he only had a few measly hours left. Then he could go home and check to see what the /alien scum/ was up to. Not being able to watch Zim for so long left him feeling antsy. Who knew what horrid things the green fiend could be doing, while he sat asking people to turn their electronics off and on again.

\--

The phone rang and rang and finally there was that familiar voice on the other end. He'd known about Dib's part time job for a few weeks now but hadn't known just how handy having the number would be. 

"Hello and thanks for calling your friendly tech-- Wait. Zim? Why the heck are you calling me at work?" Dib whispered hotly, ducking a bit in his cubicle. "I don't have time to play games with you right now, yanno."

Zim squeaked at the human's voice, never had he thought he'd be glad to hear it. "D-Dib! I need you're assistance! Something horrible is happening here! They're moving! The robots are moving!" He anxiously glanced at his power supply. He couldn't afford to carry on like this much longer. The noises were getting closer. Heavy metal foot steps. Tinkling music.

"Look, if this is something stupid that you did in your stupid lab, I haven't got time. Oh! Would you look at that; an actual customer on the other line." And with that, the line went dead. Nope. Boring was fine. Dib didn't need any Zim-centric excitement while at work.

"No, wait, Dib!" At the other line's silence, he made desperate choking sounds. Zim held the phone to his chest then realized it was still eating up his power and hung up. He'd try again in a bit. Until then...He glanced at the camera and noticed that the bunny was no where in sight. It was hard to breathe. With a distended pak leg, he pushed the 'lights' button and lit up the hallway. 

A scream stuck in his throat when a pair of impossibly blank eyes stared back into his own. He hit the door button and it slammed down with a crash. Too loud. Too loud. Too close. He waited and watched with trembling limbs until the great beast hobbled away, forgetting that there was something on the other side of the door. Oh how he wanted to keep it shut. He’d stay in here forever, safe and sound. Except, the power was rapidly draining, so Zim opened the door again. Stupid Dib. 

His mouth was dry and it had been a long time since he’d blinked. Zim watched the robots carefully, saving power, hating every second. He was at 50% power and it was only 2am. Zim grabbed the phone again and dialed again frantically. The human HAD to help him. Saving people from creepy things was his _real_ job. Even if it was Zim.

"Hello and thanks for calling your friendly tech-support agency, available 24/7. How may I help you?" Dib answered dryly, not expecting Zim to have tried to prank call him twice. 

Because honestly, Zim had an attention span of about 3 seconds. What made him so hellbent to bother Dib, at work, in the ungodly hours of the morning?

"Help me!" Zim squeaked, eyes wide as he held the tablet to his chest. "Not an accident in my lab. Animatronics. Rabbit, bear, chicken duck thing... they want in and they want...something. Don't know. And I can see something peaking out of these curtains” It was so hard to breathe. “Dib, I need your paranormal junk now." He was whispering harshly. 

"Rabbit? Paranormal junk? You're lying." Dib groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know this is some kind of trap so you can finally get rid of me!"

"N-no! Dib, I--" There was harsh breathing on the other end and the sound of something loud and metal. "The chicken tried to get in. But my power is getting low. I'm using it all up talking to you, you fool!" His voice was harsh and panicked, lacking malice, just fear. 

"Get me proof and I'll hear you out." He sighed finally. That'd put an end to it. Like Zim could get him proof of crazy, paranormal rabbits. "I have to go." And again, he hung up.  
Hopefully, that'd be the last Dib would hear of it.

"You wretched little-- ughuh!" Zim chucked the phone, forgetting it was attached by a little wire to it's base. The entire phone went flying and that solved the whole _'should I call him back again or not'_ problem. He huddled to the tablet a little closer. The clock was ticking down so slowly. Each minute closer to 6 am meant another minute he'd managed to survive. His heart was in his throat and he looked down at the tablet. There had to be a record button, right?? It took him a bit, in between checking the doors and the feed itself, to find it, but he did. A way to get on tape exactly what was happening. 

Wild eyed, trembling Zim recorded proof of this place's poorly veiled secrets.

That these monsters were walking around, and knocking at the doors, that they sung songs on their own and warbled demonically. He recorded the bright eyes of the bear, outside his door. He recorded his own scream when that fox was gone from Pirate’s Cove, when he barely shut the door in time. Heard it banging, wanting in.

Zim swore that if he got out of this place alive he was going to destroy it. He was going to destroy Henry and those animatronics. He would burn those tables with their party hats and he'd shred every single inkling of this place, newspapers, posters, children’s drawings from the world. 

He was at 2% power when the lights went up and the clock hit 6 am. Zim had been contemplating if it was possible to die from fear. He heard those animatronics lock up and stop in their tracks, before heading back towards their proper places. With wobbly legs, Zim numbly said good morning to Henry who was creepily chipper for a man who most likely knew what had occurred because he seemed surprised to see Zim at all.

The little alien stumbled out to his ship. 

He'd uploaded the feed to his home computer. When the Zim got home, he wanted to sleep but the second his eyelids fell shut, images of dead, bright eyes lighting up behind closed doors invaded. A ever constant hum of power was comforting. And when he saw Gir he almost couldn't look at the robot, except for when he asked, with a very concerned voice 'what's wrong mastah?'. Zim let all his air go and he grabbed the silly thing, holding it to his chest like a security blanket. Gir was good. Good robot. 

He had 17 hours till his next shift. There was no way he was going back there unprepared. That place would burn and he would dance on its ashes. 

Dib was probably still asleep since he worked the night shift but, that didn't stop Zim from knocking frantically on his bedroom window.

Dib pulled the covers over his head. He didn't want to deal with Zim, or rabbits, or paranormal rabbits, or--

"DIB! Answer your window, your stupid boyfriend wants in." Gaz seethed from her room across the hall.

"He's not my-- Oh. Fine." He huffed, grabbing his glasses and sitting up, unlatching the window. 

" _Now_ Zim? Now?" Dib groaned, looking at the frantic alien with a bleary gaze. "Can't this wait until, oh I dunno, morning?"

"It _is_ morning, you fool!" Zim barked, shoving the human back from the window so he could fall inside, gracefully. The room was dark and smelt of Dib. Eugh. He held up a flash drive in his claw. "I have the proof that you whined about." 

"Well, it's not morning enough, you twit." Dib grumbled, snatching the flashdrive and grabbing his laptop. With a bit of struggling through sleepy eyes, he plugged it in and started up the program. This had better be something worth waking him up for. 

"Hey, these are the animatronics from one of those stupid pizza places Gaz likes-- Wait." He narrowed his eyes, watching the feed. "How did you get them to move?" He asked Zim suspiciously.

Zim's arms flailed around in frustration. "I didn't! They move on their own and they make awful noises and scream and play music!" His eyes were wide with remembered horror. "They wanted me for some reason. They're awful." His arms wrapped around himself, subconsciously. "Just watch the stupid thing!"

"I'm watching, I'm watching." Dib huffed. "Isn't this that Bear place, uh.... Freddy's? I haven't been there in years; the food was horrible. But it's been around longer than I have, which is saying something, considering all the lawsuits it's apparently had filed against it." He frowned, watching the eerie imagery of the animatronics. 

Dib had to laugh, though, at the terrified noises of Zim in the background. He pulled up another window, opening some files on the pizzeria. "This place kinda has a history, yanno."

Maybe there was something to this, after all.

Zim tilted his head to the side, watching Dib more than the feed. He didn't like reliving the terror. "A...history?" A lump was stuck in his throat. of course. Of course it did. "What do you eh...what?" 

"Well, like I said, it's old. Like, before my dad's time old even. Way back when it started up, I guess one of the animatronics bit some kid and took out a part of his frontal lobe - that's a part of the human brain. There have been a lot of reports of missing kids and workers alike, and the health department has been after them for as long as I remember." Dib began.

"They've shut down and reopened many times, and there's a new lawsuit just about every year. Plus, I remember the pizza tasted like salt and iron, and the animatronics smelled... rotten." His face morphed into a scowl. "That's the main reason I never went back with Gaz or anything."

Zim stared at his hands. He didn't know when he'd looked down at them and away from the human's face. They shook slightly. He put them down to his sides and balled them into fists. "Yes. Everything smelt rotten and cold and...I have to go back there again tonight." Zim remembered the contract he'd signed with a rueful sigh. "You...you deal with paranormal things all the time." The little irken gestured towards the boy's room as a whole. It was practically wallpapered with newspaper articles and pictures of supernatural things. A few of those were of Zim, himself. "You see...you see, Dib these things in the video are uh...spooky, yes? Paranormal, one might say." He nodded. 

"I won't force you to say it, so yes, I'll help." Dib grinned. "Not because I care what happens to you, but if those things got _out_ , it could cause a lot of harm to the city." He shuddered to think about it. "And I wouldn't say they were paranormal so much as... eh... faulty animatronics? Maybe?" But then again, maybe they were paranormal. He couldn’t tell until he got a close look at them. "Is there a time between closing and when your shift starts, that we could look at those things?" He asked.

A flood of relief gave Zim new life, he nodded frantically. "Yes! It closes at 10 pm and my shift is at 12." 

"Usually I'd be working, but... I'm sure I can work something out with my dad. Since he kinda owns the company." Dib shrugged, and began to mutter to himself about what would be good to bring.

"Yes, good, yes." Zim replied, feeling a great weight lift off his shoulders. He wouldn't go alone this time. This time the human would be there and this human in particular was tough. Dib was hard to kill and stubborn and smart. Zim didn't want to go back there but, the idea was a lot easier to bear now.

"Great. I'll meet you in front of Freddy's at 10." Dib nodded, absentmindedly waving Zim off. "I'm keeping your flash drive, by the way. Consider it collateral."

Zim scowled but decided not, for once, to argue for fear that Dib would change his mind. He climbed back out the window. As the hours ticked by, he prepared himself. He wore his armor and made sure he was fully weaponized. He patted Gir on the head and left the house at half past 9. 

\---

The sun had fallen long ago and the moon was full. Zim glared up at it, as he stood underneath the lone street light outside of Freddy's. It flickered on and off violently. All the cars had left and the only thing that remained was the stench of grease, fear and rot. He tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the human. 

Dib pulled up shortly after, a case filled with various tools slung over his shoulder. "So, lets see how terrifying these animatronics really are."

Truthfully, though, Dib had never been terribly fond of children's eatery animatronics. Plus, if memory served him correctly, the smell was enough to scare someone off from the Freddy Fazbear's robots.

Zim stood up straighter when the human arrived, unaware that he'd been slumping until he looked up and saw how tall Dib was. It made him mad every time he laid eyes on him. He turned on the heel of his boot and opened the door with one of the thousands of keys on the ring. Zim had no idea why they had given him so many when he really only needed two of them.The door squeaked open obnoxiously. The lights were dim but, still on. They'd remain that way until 12, he knew. 

"Alright. Hopefully, since this should be some old tech, I can reprogram them, or deactivate them." Dib shrugged. "If all goes well, it should be easy." He grinned in an almost sick way. "It's probably not going to be easy though, is it?" 

Because really, when were things ever easy for either of them?

Zim eyed the human's smile, frowning in return. He had a point. But, it was a awful one. "Nonsense. We've come up against worst things before, yes? That giant evil Santa. Tak. Eh, Spider robots, Zombies..all sorts of things. We can handle it." Zim nodded, confidently. And then he saw the animatronics and all of it seemed to soak through the floor, as though the place itself fed off hope as well as grease and blood. "There they are." He said obviously, with a touch of hysteria in his voice. 

"I can smell them from here." Dib grimaced, setting his case on the floor and grabbing a surgical mask and some gloves. "Ya want some gloves? To... go over your other gloves." Dib said lamely. "We're going to have to remove the suit from the metallic skeleton so I can see how to turn this things off. Preferably _before_ they start trying to run around." He didn’t know what to expect from these things but, better safe than sorry with that smell. 

Zim nodded, taking the gloves and pulling them on. They were too big for his hands but, he didn't care. At the idea of even going near the robots, a spark of fear ignited in his very core. But, it was immediately countered by pure rage and determination. He wouldn't back down. Especially not with Dib around. He wouldn't appear to be weak next to his mortal nemesis. "They should be fine for now. The power won't go out until 12. That's when it's all diverted to the Office and when it stops keeping them in line." 

"Great, so we've got just under two hours." Dib hummed, pulling out a box cutting knife. "Feel free to grab a mask too, but, it doesn't really help too much with the smell." He admitted. "I just don't want to inhale... _whatever_ these are soaked in." He grimaced, beginning to cut the suit off of Freddy.

A viscous, brownish substance came off on the blade and on the fingers of the gloves; that which had dried flaking off and drifting to the ground. After a large enough opening was made into the suit, Dib stumbled back and gagged heavily. "Shit..." He wheezed, but quickly regained his bearings. "The smell only got worse opening it." 

Not only that, but on the inside, hanging off of wires and other control mechanisms, were various substances. Coagulated and dried... well, it looked like blood. Globules of flesh and strands of hair were matted on the inside of the suit, bits crusted up against the metallic skeleton.

"W-what is...?" Zim turned away and gagged as well, putting his hands over his eyes. No. This wasn't happening. He'd only seen it for a second but it was enough. Teeth and nails. Viscera and rotting flesh. White maggots writhed inside the suit. "Dib..."He panted, looking over at the boy. He saw a mirror of his own horror. Dib's face was pale and those eerie pupils dilated in fear. His stomach rolled again as he smelt it again. Zim backed up as fast as he could. No. "No." He said aloud and it sounded far away. "What do we...?"

"I'm going to shut these things down." Dib wheezed. "Then I think there needs to be a convenient accident that maybe burns this place to the ground." It's not like the food was good anyways. 

Once the suit was finally peeled away and tossed as far aside as possible, Dib began to examine the animatronic. "For how old this is supposed to be - yanno, 80's and such - don't you think it looks a little... advanced?" He asked Zim warily. After all, Zim /was/ an alien, shouldn't he know something about advanced technology?

"Bluh." Zim responded, hand in front of his mouth to avoid breathing in anything. But, at the boy's question, he waddled a little closer and peered inside. All he saw was the gore and he turned away quickly. "I don't know! I don't really care! Just...disable it or whatever!" He didn't want to throw up. But, the image of steel components drenched and mashed with who knew how much blood and guts...it was burned inside his eyelids. Zim knew he would forever remember this. He didn't want to. This place WOULD burn. 

"I am, I am." Dib grumbled, fiddling with wires and a small programming panel. After a bit longer than either of them cared for, the human finally finished, closing the panel. He paused, however, before heading over to Bonnie. 

"I know you said you don't care, but look at this." Dib pointed to a symbol expertly etched into the metal that housed the animatronic 'brain' so to speak. "I've never seen it before."

Zim glanced over at it. "Neither have I. So? Maybe its the company that made these horrible things." Maybe that was a good reason. "Maybe we should hunt them down and burn their factory, too." Who ever made these things deserved it. He then noted the large chunk of...something wedged between several bolts and had enough. His spooch wasn't happy. He wasn't happy. The stress and anger, the fear all sent him overboard. He grabbed a empty pitcher set out at one of the tables and threw up all the contents of his stomach, which wasn't much.

At least, according to Dib, Freddy was down for the count. Now they had to do the rest of them. And the clock was ticking. 

Maybe growing up surrounded by laboratories had given Dib a bit of a stronger stomach. Autopsies, experiments, and strange chemicals filled his childhood. But even he'd be lying if he tried to deny the strong urge to vomit and then never leave his room again. 

"C'mon. You call yourself an invader? The faster we get the rabbit's suit off, the faster I can deactivate it." He was trying to lighten the mood with some banter, but the smell, the atmosphere, the race against time still hung heavily on them both like a lead jacket.

Zim grumbled, feeling miserable. He wobbled over to stand next to the human, before he helped pull the bunny's metal casing off of its exoskeleton. It was a bit easier to do than Freddy's. As soon as the casing was off, gunk fell to the floor. It wasn't even recognizable as anything but gore. Who did all of this belong to? Which humans had been shoved inside these things? His knees knocked together and he swallowed down the bile that threatened to arise. "H-Hurry..."

Dib kept his lips pressed tightly together in fear that he too would soon find himself getting sick. Instead of answering, he simply gave Zim a quick nod, fingers flying as quickly as the could through the shutdown protocols. 

His head was swimming, dizzied from the putrid stench that hung in the air, amassing around them like a thick fog. Dib could swear he felt it on his skin, in his hair, burning his eyes. It felt like the room was heating up, festering and decaying around him. 

"Oh god..." He finally groaned, stumbling away from the deactivated mechatronic, leaning against a wall. "Duck next?" Dib asked.

"Yes...no! Wait, there's another one." He gestured towards Pirate's Cove. "It's fast. It..."He remembered watching it running and feeling his heart in his throat as he shut the door. Metal fists slamming against the outside. "It should go first." 

"I don't want to go in there." Dib moaned, a slight whine creeping into his voice. Regardless, he approached the curtain, ripping it to the side. "If you leave me in there... I... I dunno. I'll do the most horrible things imaginable to you." He threatened weakly, beginning to start on the Fox's suit. It was thankfully tattered and came off easier, however, the programming was far more corrupted, and took longer than anticipated to shut down.

Zim shook his head. He wouldn’t leave Dib. Not today. Maybe another day. He sat under a table, watching the boy work and felt like he was dying. The human hadn’t ever looked so haggard. Deep circles ringed his eyes and little lines made him look older. But, they were almost done. Almost done with this hell hole. No more people would be taken by these things. No one else would have to be a nameless gory mess inside a animatronic, forced to sing and dance. 

This place would be burnt to the ground and this nightmare would be over. Of course that still left Zim with no job. But, there had to be other places. Better and less terrifying places. Maybe he could convince Dib to let him work at that MembraneTech place. He smirked at the idea of bothering the boy every single day. It would be nice. 

"Finally." Dib huffed, wanting to wipe sweat from his face, but not liking the idea of rubbing any part of his filthy gloves on his skin. "Now all that's left is--"

It was a corny, overly cheery sound, resonating from high upon a wall, above the kitchen. A stupid little jingle from one of those cuckoo clocks, characters popping out and dancing around before going back into the clock housing. 

A sound had never filled Dib with so much dread. His stomach had done all but drop itself out of his body, his heart racing, breathing stopped.   
Midnight. The clock had stuck midnight, and they were too late. He had no idea what that thing would do if it was still alive but, he wasn’t going to find out.

Dib made a break for his case - he'd brought a taser, in hopes it'd be able to overload the animatronic's circuits in the offhand chance that this happened ( he always thought ahead). 

The duck beat him, and snatched him up in a crushing grip. 

Dib's mind went blank, and he screamed for the nearest one who could help. "ZIM! Oh god, Zim!" He gasped, the monster's arms crushing around him tighter as he tried to claw at the metal surrounding him, uselessly. Dib gagged, air being forced from his lungs. 

"Please... help..!" He was going to die. He was going to be like those other people whose insides were rotting inside these metal skeletons. 

The monster only knew that this thing wasn’t supposed to be here. It was against the rules. It would be put back into its place. Its screaming fell on mute ears. 

Zim hit his head on the table. He’d been hidden and it hadn’t known he was there. Zim _could_ stay under the table. He could wait it out until 6 o clock. It was just one little robot. It would never find him. 

But, then he heard the human call for help, for _him_ and he hated himself because he was crawling out from under neath the dirty, gum covered table. His spider legs exploded from his Pak and he was making a run towards the dead eyed mechanical nightmare. This thing would not claim another victim. Especially not the Dib. 

Zim didn’t hear himself screaming with rage or fear, but he heard the sound of metal against metal as his pak legs shoved themselves into the robot’s body. It turned to stare at him, doing very small, very subtle calculations. It knew it was in danger. It spun and switched targets.

Zim stabbed the thing over and over, its arms reaching for him, jerking with each attempt. It bled like it was alive. But that wasn’t its own blood, Zim reminded himself. That somehow didn’t make it better. 

It was impaling itself to try and get him. The noise of screeching metal against metal was deafening. Finally, he must’ve hit enough wires or vital parts. It fell over and sparked, making awful sounds like it _was_ dying. Muffled music, squawks and its eyes rolled back in its head. Zim skewered Chicka, filling it with holes and only when it stopped twitching did he go limp in return. 

The blood was rushing in his head, adrenaline and terror blurred his vision. The world smelled of rot and hatred. Would he ever be safe again? Zim hugged himself and blindly searched. “D-Dib?! You...are you...?” His own voice sounded weak and hysterical. 

Dib was shaking violently, hands and knees working numbly to crawl from the chicken's grasp. He dropped down on the old, musty carpet, exhausted from nearly dying. He was silent for what felt like hours, staring up in terror at Zim. Finally, he spoke in a broken, hoarse voice. 

"Let's burn it." Zim nodded weakly. 

\--

Together they drenched the place in gasoline (the alien had come prepared). Zim didn’t even care that it smelled strongly. It covered up the stench of decay. 

They stood far away and watched Freddy’s go up in flames. Zim wished he could feel relieved. But, instead he was bone tired, and felt dirty everywhere. The place would be gone forever. He took a small bit of satisfaction from that. He glanced over at Dib who looked just as tired as he did, amber eyes watching the flames. They danced in those irises and Zim shuddered as he remembered hearing that voice, so familiar call for help. He never wanted to hear it again. 

Finally, as the building went up, everything seemed to wash over Dib. He staggered a few feet away and wretched, heaving for several minutes until the contents of his stomach had been thoroughly emptied. He stayed by himself for a few moments before slowly moving back towards Zim. 

"Thanks..." He murmured, staring into the burning husk of the pizzeria. "For not letting that thing..." Dib trailed off, unwilling to finish. 

Over the crackling of the flames, he could almost swear he heard the tinkling music of the animatronics, warped and distorted from the heat.

Zim swallowed and his own saliva tasted horrible. At the boys words, he nodded numbly. “Yes, well...you came here after all. And...” I wouldn’t let you died. I couldn’t. Not now. Not here. “Be quiet, filth. Let’s get out of here.” 

They went their separate ways as sirens blared in the distance. When Zim returned to his base, he cleaned himself thoroughly and still felt like he’d been corrupted. He held Gir to his chest and watched re runs of old sitcoms until dawn and fell asleep. He dreamt of metal skeletons clogged with the insides of everyone he knew. He dreamt of that strange symbol, carved into his own flesh. 

Dib, on the other hand, slept very little. When he'd manage to drift off, he was always awoken, swearing he'd heard the scraping of the animatronics, hearing them scream or play their taunting music. Eventually, he gave up on sleep and poured into trying to find an origin to the symbol that had been on the robot’s bodies. 

His efforts left little fruition. 

If it was of this Earth, it had managed to keep itself well hidden from the prying eyes of others. If not... 

If not, Zim might find himself with some competition.

A full investigation went into tying someone to the arson. The leads eventually went cold and in time the place was bulldozed down. Done. Gone. 

Zim walked by it sometimes on the way to the store or to prove to himself he could and glared little holes where a new laundromat had opened up. It still filled him with dread to see that one street light, flickering violently in the nearly empty parking lot.


End file.
